Since Facebook launched, the company has faced one privacy flap
after another, usually following changes to the privacy policy or
new product releases. To its credit, the company has often
modified its products based on such feedback. As the
pioneer in a huge new market, Facebook will take heat for
everything it does. It has also now grown into a $22
billion company run by adults who know that
their future depends on Facebook users trusting the site's
privacy policy.

But the company's attitude toward privacy, as reflected in
Mark's
early emails and IMs, features like Beacon and Instant
Personalization, and the frequent changes to the privacy policy,
has been consistently aggressive: Do something first, then see
how people react.

And this does appear to reflect Mark's own views of privacy,
which seem to be that people shouldn't care about it as much as
they do -- an attitude that very much reflects the attitude of
his generation.

After all, here's what early Facebook engineering boss, Harvard
alum, and Zuckerberg confidant Charlie Cheever said in David
Kirkpatrick's brilliantly-reported upcoming book
The Facebook Effect.

Again in Kirkpatrick's book, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg puts it
this way:

"Mark really does believe very much in transparency and the
vision of an open society and open world, and so he wants to push
people that way. I think he also understands that the way to get
there is to give people granular control and comfort. He hopes
you'll get more open, and he's kind of happy to help you get
there. So for him, it's more of a means to an end. For me, I'm
not as sure."